Originally published at: Russian warplane bombs own city | Boing Boing
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I’m not sure why given its performance in Ukraine so far, but the Russian military apparently didn’t think it was truly living up to its reputation.
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the Russian defence ministry admitted that one of its Su-34 fighter bombers had “accidentally discharged aircraft ordnance”
The Russian Defence Minister has a lot to learn about neutral phrasing; the statement should read, “a car crashed in to a supermarket, during an incident involving a pilot”.
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Blimey, that last car to cross the crater was fortunate not to be launched liked the parked car.
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We make good practice
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I’m honestly surprised that the Defense Ministry said “Ooops, that was one of ours,” instead of “Ukrainian Nazis launch unprovoked attack on civilian targets in peaceful Belgorod!”
I suppose admitting that the enemy could penetrate your air defenses might be a bad look, so it’s better to own the error than to try to spin it.
Imagine the poor car owner coming back and panicking that his car’s been towed, and then someone has to break the news to him that a Sukhoi swung by and yeeted his ride onto the roof of a supermarket. That must have been an interesting conversation.
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Adding to that, it’s odd for a bomber carrying live ordnance to pass straight through a city centre while still behind your own lines.
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You would think, but back in October last year, an Su-34 lost an engine over a city called Yeysk and hit an apartment block, killing 13 people. I looked at the map and it turned out that the local military airfield was right next to the populated area, with the principal runway pointing straight at the city.
Maybe it was some kind of Soviet-era design policy, or maybe housing sprang up on cheap land since the airfield was built. I don’t know if something similar is true of Belgorod – I can’t find an airfield on the map – but it might be.
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While I have issues with America, I am VERY glad that I am not Russian. That country sucks.
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The Ukrainian attack excuse would imply the Russian defenses aren’t very good, and that might’ve been something they didn’t want to imply.
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Also, based on the almost 20 second delay, I think it was this bomb which has a fuse of sorts:
And I think the Ukrainian Air Force has already commented that “Ukrainian forces cannot counter this weapon.”
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Seeing the headlights of the flying car zoom thru the air is just crazy.
Like a tossed flashlight.
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Brilliant film. I’d put it up there with All Quiet on the Western Front (the book) and Slaughterhouse Five as the greatest modern anti-war works available. And as much as it pains me to say, no small part of that is due to McNamara’s frankness and willingness to be self-critical. I’d also forgotten Philip Glass wrote the music.
They were busy putting this masterpiece together.
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The pilot…
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There are a lot of ways this could have been an “accident”
- The Russian military is dropping bombs willy-nilly on Ukrainian cities, and the accident involved mispositioning themselves and not realizing which civilians they were randomly blowing up
- The crew are so poorly trained they didn’t realize they were accidentally hitting the “release bomb” button
- Shanghaiing newly trained pilots into the Russian air force was a mistake, and someone decided, “Let’s see how my fellow Russians like having bombs dropped on them. Slava Ukraini! Uh, I mean, ooops!”
OMG, LOL. Not just the accents, but the horrible readings (can’t even call it acting) - this was clearly made originally either as a joke taken by someone else out of context, or (I assume) as propaganda for people who don’t understand a word of English.
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I love how they peppered it with USian vulgarities to up its authenticity. “It just fuck up! Give me coordinate!”
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